Kentucky: Transfer-on-Death Deed Requirements

Kentucky does not allow a transfer-on-death deed — sometimes called a "beneficiary deed" — for real
estate. No Kentucky statute lets you record a deed naming who inherits your house at your death while you
keep full control during life. If you want your home to skip probate, you have to use a different tool.

Kentucky is one of the few remaining states that has not adopted the Uniform Real Property Transfer
on Death Act. It is not for lack of trying: lawmakers have introduced the Act again and again — in 2017,
2018, 2023, 2024, and 2026 — and it has never passed. The most recent attempt, SB 34 (2026), cleared
the Kentucky Senate on a 36-2 vote in March 2026 but stalled in a House committee and died when the
session ended. Because it is not law, a "transfer-on-death deed" recorded in Kentucky today does nothing.

How Kentuckians keep a home out of probate instead

Because there is no TOD deed, the practical options are:

• A revocable living trust. You create the trust and deed your home into it during life. You keep
  control as trustee, and at your death your successor trustee transfers the property to your
  beneficiaries without probate. This is the closest functional substitute for a TOD deed.
• Joint tenancy with right of survivorship. If you own the home with someone else with an express
  right of survivorship, the survivor automatically owns the whole property at your death — no probate.
  The trade-off is that the co-owner gets a present ownership interest now.
• Tenancy by the entirety (for married couples) works similarly, with the surviving spouse taking
  automatically.

If you do none of these, the home passes by your will or, with no will, by intestate descent under
KRS Chapter 391 — "it shall descend in common to his kindred" (KRS 391.010) — either of which runs through
probate in the district court.

What trips people up

• A "Kentucky transfer-on-death deed" form is legally empty today. Kentucky has not enacted the TOD
  deed Act, so recording one does not pass your house at death. Watch the Legislature: a version has come
  close (SB 34 passed the Senate in 2026), and this could change in a future session.
• Do not trust an online claim that Kentucky already has a "KRS 394B" TOD deed law. There is no such
  chapter. The repeated bills to create the Act are the proof it is not yet law.
• A trust only works if you fund it. Signing a living trust but never deeding the home into it leaves
  the house in your probate estate. Transferring the deed is the step that matters.

Common questions

I found a "Kentucky transfer-on-death deed" form online. Will it work? No. Those forms are sold
nationwide, but Kentucky has no statute making a real-property TOD deed effective. Recording one will not
pass your house at death; it will still go through probate or by your will.

Kentucky lets me name a beneficiary on my bank account — why not my house? Because Kentucky's
nonprobate-transfer tools cover accounts and securities (payable-on-death and TOD registration), not a
recordable real-estate deed. A bill to extend the idea to land (SB 34) passed the Senate in 2026 but did
not become law.

What is the simplest way to avoid probate on my home in Kentucky? For most people it is a revocable
living trust with the home deeded into it, or holding title in joint tenancy with right of
survivorship with the person who should inherit. An attorney can tell you which fits your situation and
your Medicaid and creditor concerns.

Statutes and sources

• KRS 391.010 (Descent of real estate — how real property passes at death by intestate descent absent a will or nonprobate mechanism; the official page flags a 2026 amendment effective July 15, 2026 revising intestate-share details) — https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=36130 (accessed 2026-07-11)